Blogocentric Formulations

National Fast Food Day

Today is National Fast Food Day, so I thought I'd take an inventory of my fast food habits.

The most popular fast food restaurants I go to regularly are Chick-Fil-A, Wendy's, and In-N-Out Burger. And Jersey's Mikes, if you consider a sub sandwich place (or competitors to Subway) fast food. This is largely a function of them being nearby. Wherever we've lived, we've had a tendency to have a convenient fast food place within a short driving distance so that we have a quick, easy meal when we want one.

Less commonly, I'll hit up Taco Bell, Chipotle, and Panda Express (a personal favorite of both of my kids, so we get that way more than I'd probably get otherwise). They're not part of my usual routine, but every so often they'll sound really good and I'll be tempted to run out and get it the next time I need to grab a quick bite on the go.

Fast food restaurants I don't necessarily avoid but I just haven't been to in a long time include Carl's Jr., Burger King, Dairy Queen (although that's mostly due to limited locations... I actually love DQ), and Jack in the Box. I used to get Jack in the Box all the time in high school. It was the only place to eat between school and my part-time job, so I think I ate their one too many times and now it just never really sounds good. I'll stop there whenever it's convenient, but I never really actively seek it out.

The one fast food restaurant I tend to actively avoid is McDonald's. The last time I had McDonald's was actually when we were traveling abroad and were tired of picking local restaurants and hoping they would have something that sounded good; we just wanted a predictable meal where we knew what to expect. (If you know me at all, you'll know how desperate I'd have to be to do that... I'm usually all about finding local places you can't find just anywhere!). But that trip was probably ten years ago at this point, and I haven't eaten anything at a McDonald's since.

Generally speaking, we try to avoid fast food whenever possible... but as a family with two young kids, sometimes fast food is just the only thing we have the time or energy for. And, sure, we pretend to go to places where the food is a little better than at other chains... but I don't think we're winning any nutrition awards or good parenting trophies just because we pick Chick-Fil-A over McDonald's. Neither one is ideal and we should probably work a little harder to make sure we're not going out to a fast food joint more than once a week or so.